Post by bluefedish on Mar 29, 2008 15:04:01 GMT -5
Choosing a Storage Area
Proper care of your magickal tools and accessories in important for the success of any magickal endeavor. If you allow someone will a culmination of negative energy to handle your tools, it will lessen or even negate their effectiveness until you cleanse and consecrate them again. Even if that individual is a trusted friend or small child, the tool can absorb emotion and energy; both are vibratory in nature.
The storage area you choose should be able to hold everything except correspondence. Like a well-designed kitchen where everything is at your fingertips, your storage area should be equipped to house all your tools and accessories.
I don't suggest you keep things in boxes because by the time you get done rummaging through them for a particular item, the rest of your things are in shambles.
Filling Your Cabinet
Buying, trading, and making "goodies" for your magickal work is one of the most enjoyable areas of Witchcraft, but it's necessary that you understand the importance and the nature of these objects. Tools and accessories don't perform the magick. They don't bring thought into form by themselves.
A good example is the crystal, an item that is magickal in character and still a mystery to most of humankind. If we believe the ancient stories of these gems, they are capable of for more than what they are used for today, even in magick. For crystals to work properly in magick, you must learn to plug them into you, like plugging a computer into an electric outlet so that you can access the software on the system. Without the connection, the computer will stare blankly at you.
The crystal becomes an extension of yourself and your energy. If it is left sitting alone in your cabinet, it's not going to decide to heal your neighbor's daughter without any help from you. They need you to assist in channeling the energy, both yours and the crystal's.
The tradition or pantheon you have chosen may dictate some of the more specialized tools you may require. Other items, such as candles, wands, chalices, pentacles, and incense are relatively standard through the practices of the New Generation of Witches.
The Guidelines for tools and accessories are simple, but important:
1. All tools and accessories should be cleansed and consecrated prior to use (even for adornment). This holds true if you have made them for yourself, they have been given to you, or you have purchased them.
2. No tool or accessory should be used for anything other than the express purpose of magick or ritual celebrations.
3. Never, ever touch someone else's tools and accessories without their permission. Likewise, never allow anyone else to touch your magickal items unless you are absolutely sure that the person's energy is synergetic with yours. The only exclusion here are the Tarot cards or some other type of divination tool that may require the energy of the querent. However, there are special cleansing guidelines for these as well.
Performing magick is serious business. Your tools are an extension of you. The longer you use them, the more energy they store. After a time, you will be able to notice this by a simple touch. The tool will tingle in your hand. Some of your tools will carry stronger vibrations than others, depending on how often you use them, what you use them for, and what material they are made of.
When you receive or purchase a magickal item, it is necessary to both cleanse and consecrate it. Cleansing it removes any negative residue from the piece, and consecration empowers it with positive energy.
When stocking your cabinet, simple things, like herbs you have dried yourself, or the gift of a feather from a networking brother or sister, can be far more powerful than a $75 wand that is only 3 inches long and uncomfortable in your hand.
Standard Magickal Tools
The Wand
The wand serves to project your energy to a certain place, things, person or dimension. Wands can be made of wood or copper insulated by leather.
A wooden wand should be taken from trees that are native to your locality. You'll need to research the magickal properties of these trees to make the best choice. Energy patterns in different areas of the country vibrate on their own frequencies. Taking the wand from your own area will keep you in harmony with the land about you.
Special care should be taken when removing a branch from a living tree. You must first check to determine what the pruning season for the particular tree is. If you're not sure, call a local nursery. When cutting the wand, be sure to explain to the tree why you are taking the branch. It is best to ask its permission to do so. The wand should be about 12 - 18 inches in length, relatively straight and a comfortable weight to wield. Remember to sever the aura after you have cut the physical branch, and leave an offering at the base of the tree.
As the leather/copper wand is used for general magick and healing, the zapper is used to move things quickly. Wands traditionally stand for communication and matters of business. So if you wish to choose between your athame and your wand in a particular situation dealing with business or communication, you would pick the wand.
The Broom (Bossume, Bossom, Besom)
The broom can be used for decoration, magick and ritual. It’s used to sweep an area clean of negative energy. The broom is basically the symbol for a female witch and it represents her vehicle for traveling into dreamtime.
Brooms are laid at the gateway to a coven circle, used to send messages to friends via astral travel, and set outside with specific instructions to make friends with your local faery folk. Should a mist surround you broom, you will know your message has been received.
The Chalice
The Chalice is a symbol of emotion and fertility. Chalices are used in dedication and initiation ceremonies, holiday rituals to honor the Gods/Goddesses, and certain spells. Chalices are usually long-stemmed and made of almost any food-safe material.
The type of chalice you use is totally up to you. The legend of the chalice is an old one, stemming from the times of divine sacrifice of the kings to ensure the prosperity of their people. In Craft rituals, the cup represents the female and the athame represents the male. When the athame is lowered into the cup, it symbolizes the divine union of the God and Goddess, a very moving experience indeed!
The Pentacle
The pentacle is a flat disc with a pentagram (among other possible symbols) inscribed on it. Its basic use is to evoke entities and protection. It can also be used to draw material gain to oneself, or hung in a room to invite protection. The pentacle also coincides with the Native American Medicine shield or wheel, where each compass direction stands for significant elements and life forces.
This is an excellent tool for empowering jewelry and gems, as you place them in the center of the five-pointed star. Poppets for healing should be placed here, as well. The pentacle should be upright at all times while on your altar.
The Athame/Sword
The athame is used for commanding and manipulating power. This knife is usually double-edged and dull as it doesn’t actually cut anything on the physical plane. It’s for directing energy in a dimension where real knives are useless.
The athame stands for intellect, right thinking, and calculation.
Note: Knives, swords, and the law: Theses items are viewed as concealed weapons by most law enforcement officials, if they are found in your vehicle or on your person. Law enforcement officials don’t view knives and swords as ritual items. They have the right to confiscate and not return them. Most witches don’t bring their ritual knives to festivals or outside Sabbats for fear of losing these precious items forever.
The Bolline
The Bolline is the tool used for cutting things in the physical realm. It’s a type of knife with a curved handle, often white, is used for harvesting herbs, wands, plants, inscribing candles, cutting cords, etc. It should not be used at a place like the dinner table, or to open a cellophane package in the kitchen. Its use is purely for magickal workings.
Incense Burner
The incense burner’s function is to purify the area you are magickally working in. It can also be used to purify your home in a yearly magickal housecleaning.
Incense helps the witch reach altered states of consciousness. Incense can be purchased in cones, sticks, cubes or raw.
The Cauldron
The cauldron is the symbol of the Goddess. Transformations take place when this tool is used. It can be the main point of interest in a ritual, used for developing your own oils or brews, and for divination purposes by scrying with still water, steam, or dripping wax into the water and watching the patterns as the wax expands.
It’s usually made of cast iron as it needs to be able to take the heat (and keep on bubbling), and it’s a tradition from the Old Religion. In the ancient days of medieval midwives, the cauldron was most likely used to heat water in preparation for the birthing of a baby or preparing the wash water with herbs for cleansing the dead. From birth to death, the cauldron was used for a variety of purposes, including remedies and medicines for healing the sick or bringing love. All people like to meld with their genetic roots; the cauldron provides a link.
What Else Will You Find in a Witch’s Cabinet
Not everyone’s collection of magickal items will be the same. You will learn to work with what comes naturally and brings the highest rate of success. Listed below are some items that reside in a witch’s cabinet, but will vary between witch. Note: Keeping track of your tools and accessories is important.
Altar cloths
Amulets
Athame
Baskets
Beads (for making jewelry and talismans/amulets)
Bell
Bolline
Book of Shadows/Grimoire
Bowls (for holding salt, water, oils, etc.)
Candles (all colors and styles)
Candles holders
Cauldron
Chalices
Compass
Crystals & Gems
Decanter (for wine and mead)
Divination tools
Earth
Feathers (all colors)
Felt (all colors)
Glue
Herbs, dried plants and spices
Holy water
Holy oil
Incense, bricks, burners & fire resistant plate
Jars with lids
Lighters or matches
Magickal mirror or Scrying mirror
Magickal jewelry
Mortar and pestle
Oils (various selection for dressing candles, etc.)
Paper
Pens or pencils (for writing spells)
Pendulums
Pentacles
Pentagrams
Pocket knife
Pouches
Runes
Rope, Ribbon or String
Scissors
Sea salt
Statues
Talismans
Tarot cards
Wands
Study
An integral part of stocking your magickal cabinet is the continued study of the principles of your tools and accessories and how they relate to you, your magick, and the Universe in general. In order for you to get the most benefit from the things you store and use, you’ll want to learn as much as possible about them.
Take some time to consider what magickal items you would like to work with first. Can you make them yourself? Craft shops have all sorts of great things you can turn into magickal items, especially in wood, ceramics and beadwork. A burning tool, a little paint or stain, and you can make just about anything. Even if you feel you’re not talented with your hands, remember that these items are for your use; they don’t have to be perfect and won’t be on display in a glass case in your parlor.
Collecting, exchanging, gathering and making your own magickal supplies strengthens your focus and abilities.
Selected Source:
To Ride A Silver Broomstick – New Generation Witchcraft By: Silver RavenWolf
Proper care of your magickal tools and accessories in important for the success of any magickal endeavor. If you allow someone will a culmination of negative energy to handle your tools, it will lessen or even negate their effectiveness until you cleanse and consecrate them again. Even if that individual is a trusted friend or small child, the tool can absorb emotion and energy; both are vibratory in nature.
The storage area you choose should be able to hold everything except correspondence. Like a well-designed kitchen where everything is at your fingertips, your storage area should be equipped to house all your tools and accessories.
I don't suggest you keep things in boxes because by the time you get done rummaging through them for a particular item, the rest of your things are in shambles.
Filling Your Cabinet
Buying, trading, and making "goodies" for your magickal work is one of the most enjoyable areas of Witchcraft, but it's necessary that you understand the importance and the nature of these objects. Tools and accessories don't perform the magick. They don't bring thought into form by themselves.
A good example is the crystal, an item that is magickal in character and still a mystery to most of humankind. If we believe the ancient stories of these gems, they are capable of for more than what they are used for today, even in magick. For crystals to work properly in magick, you must learn to plug them into you, like plugging a computer into an electric outlet so that you can access the software on the system. Without the connection, the computer will stare blankly at you.
The crystal becomes an extension of yourself and your energy. If it is left sitting alone in your cabinet, it's not going to decide to heal your neighbor's daughter without any help from you. They need you to assist in channeling the energy, both yours and the crystal's.
The tradition or pantheon you have chosen may dictate some of the more specialized tools you may require. Other items, such as candles, wands, chalices, pentacles, and incense are relatively standard through the practices of the New Generation of Witches.
The Guidelines for tools and accessories are simple, but important:
1. All tools and accessories should be cleansed and consecrated prior to use (even for adornment). This holds true if you have made them for yourself, they have been given to you, or you have purchased them.
2. No tool or accessory should be used for anything other than the express purpose of magick or ritual celebrations.
3. Never, ever touch someone else's tools and accessories without their permission. Likewise, never allow anyone else to touch your magickal items unless you are absolutely sure that the person's energy is synergetic with yours. The only exclusion here are the Tarot cards or some other type of divination tool that may require the energy of the querent. However, there are special cleansing guidelines for these as well.
Performing magick is serious business. Your tools are an extension of you. The longer you use them, the more energy they store. After a time, you will be able to notice this by a simple touch. The tool will tingle in your hand. Some of your tools will carry stronger vibrations than others, depending on how often you use them, what you use them for, and what material they are made of.
When you receive or purchase a magickal item, it is necessary to both cleanse and consecrate it. Cleansing it removes any negative residue from the piece, and consecration empowers it with positive energy.
When stocking your cabinet, simple things, like herbs you have dried yourself, or the gift of a feather from a networking brother or sister, can be far more powerful than a $75 wand that is only 3 inches long and uncomfortable in your hand.
Standard Magickal Tools
The Wand
The wand serves to project your energy to a certain place, things, person or dimension. Wands can be made of wood or copper insulated by leather.
A wooden wand should be taken from trees that are native to your locality. You'll need to research the magickal properties of these trees to make the best choice. Energy patterns in different areas of the country vibrate on their own frequencies. Taking the wand from your own area will keep you in harmony with the land about you.
Special care should be taken when removing a branch from a living tree. You must first check to determine what the pruning season for the particular tree is. If you're not sure, call a local nursery. When cutting the wand, be sure to explain to the tree why you are taking the branch. It is best to ask its permission to do so. The wand should be about 12 - 18 inches in length, relatively straight and a comfortable weight to wield. Remember to sever the aura after you have cut the physical branch, and leave an offering at the base of the tree.
As the leather/copper wand is used for general magick and healing, the zapper is used to move things quickly. Wands traditionally stand for communication and matters of business. So if you wish to choose between your athame and your wand in a particular situation dealing with business or communication, you would pick the wand.
The Broom (Bossume, Bossom, Besom)
The broom can be used for decoration, magick and ritual. It’s used to sweep an area clean of negative energy. The broom is basically the symbol for a female witch and it represents her vehicle for traveling into dreamtime.
Brooms are laid at the gateway to a coven circle, used to send messages to friends via astral travel, and set outside with specific instructions to make friends with your local faery folk. Should a mist surround you broom, you will know your message has been received.
The Chalice
The Chalice is a symbol of emotion and fertility. Chalices are used in dedication and initiation ceremonies, holiday rituals to honor the Gods/Goddesses, and certain spells. Chalices are usually long-stemmed and made of almost any food-safe material.
The type of chalice you use is totally up to you. The legend of the chalice is an old one, stemming from the times of divine sacrifice of the kings to ensure the prosperity of their people. In Craft rituals, the cup represents the female and the athame represents the male. When the athame is lowered into the cup, it symbolizes the divine union of the God and Goddess, a very moving experience indeed!
The Pentacle
The pentacle is a flat disc with a pentagram (among other possible symbols) inscribed on it. Its basic use is to evoke entities and protection. It can also be used to draw material gain to oneself, or hung in a room to invite protection. The pentacle also coincides with the Native American Medicine shield or wheel, where each compass direction stands for significant elements and life forces.
This is an excellent tool for empowering jewelry and gems, as you place them in the center of the five-pointed star. Poppets for healing should be placed here, as well. The pentacle should be upright at all times while on your altar.
The Athame/Sword
The athame is used for commanding and manipulating power. This knife is usually double-edged and dull as it doesn’t actually cut anything on the physical plane. It’s for directing energy in a dimension where real knives are useless.
The athame stands for intellect, right thinking, and calculation.
Note: Knives, swords, and the law: Theses items are viewed as concealed weapons by most law enforcement officials, if they are found in your vehicle or on your person. Law enforcement officials don’t view knives and swords as ritual items. They have the right to confiscate and not return them. Most witches don’t bring their ritual knives to festivals or outside Sabbats for fear of losing these precious items forever.
The Bolline
The Bolline is the tool used for cutting things in the physical realm. It’s a type of knife with a curved handle, often white, is used for harvesting herbs, wands, plants, inscribing candles, cutting cords, etc. It should not be used at a place like the dinner table, or to open a cellophane package in the kitchen. Its use is purely for magickal workings.
Incense Burner
The incense burner’s function is to purify the area you are magickally working in. It can also be used to purify your home in a yearly magickal housecleaning.
Incense helps the witch reach altered states of consciousness. Incense can be purchased in cones, sticks, cubes or raw.
The Cauldron
The cauldron is the symbol of the Goddess. Transformations take place when this tool is used. It can be the main point of interest in a ritual, used for developing your own oils or brews, and for divination purposes by scrying with still water, steam, or dripping wax into the water and watching the patterns as the wax expands.
It’s usually made of cast iron as it needs to be able to take the heat (and keep on bubbling), and it’s a tradition from the Old Religion. In the ancient days of medieval midwives, the cauldron was most likely used to heat water in preparation for the birthing of a baby or preparing the wash water with herbs for cleansing the dead. From birth to death, the cauldron was used for a variety of purposes, including remedies and medicines for healing the sick or bringing love. All people like to meld with their genetic roots; the cauldron provides a link.
What Else Will You Find in a Witch’s Cabinet
Not everyone’s collection of magickal items will be the same. You will learn to work with what comes naturally and brings the highest rate of success. Listed below are some items that reside in a witch’s cabinet, but will vary between witch. Note: Keeping track of your tools and accessories is important.
Altar cloths
Amulets
Athame
Baskets
Beads (for making jewelry and talismans/amulets)
Bell
Bolline
Book of Shadows/Grimoire
Bowls (for holding salt, water, oils, etc.)
Candles (all colors and styles)
Candles holders
Cauldron
Chalices
Compass
Crystals & Gems
Decanter (for wine and mead)
Divination tools
Earth
Feathers (all colors)
Felt (all colors)
Glue
Herbs, dried plants and spices
Holy water
Holy oil
Incense, bricks, burners & fire resistant plate
Jars with lids
Lighters or matches
Magickal mirror or Scrying mirror
Magickal jewelry
Mortar and pestle
Oils (various selection for dressing candles, etc.)
Paper
Pens or pencils (for writing spells)
Pendulums
Pentacles
Pentagrams
Pocket knife
Pouches
Runes
Rope, Ribbon or String
Scissors
Sea salt
Statues
Talismans
Tarot cards
Wands
Study
An integral part of stocking your magickal cabinet is the continued study of the principles of your tools and accessories and how they relate to you, your magick, and the Universe in general. In order for you to get the most benefit from the things you store and use, you’ll want to learn as much as possible about them.
Take some time to consider what magickal items you would like to work with first. Can you make them yourself? Craft shops have all sorts of great things you can turn into magickal items, especially in wood, ceramics and beadwork. A burning tool, a little paint or stain, and you can make just about anything. Even if you feel you’re not talented with your hands, remember that these items are for your use; they don’t have to be perfect and won’t be on display in a glass case in your parlor.
Collecting, exchanging, gathering and making your own magickal supplies strengthens your focus and abilities.
Selected Source:
To Ride A Silver Broomstick – New Generation Witchcraft By: Silver RavenWolf
